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A discussion of healthy building design is not complete without mention of building commissioning. Traditionally, commissioning referred to the testing and balancing of the mechanical system to ensure that it worked properly after installation and that the operations and maintenance crew understood its requirements. As the movement toward sustainable design has advanced, the term is frequently used to describe a broader mission. According to architect Ronald Gobbell, aia, and engineer Steve Hays, of Gobbell Hays Partners in Nashville, the intent of a building commissioning plan is to “organize efforts to integrate design, construction, operation and maintenance, and also to provide guidelines for future managers and maintenance personnel.” Ideally, all building systems should be commissioned—from mechanical and natural ventilation to lighting controls and exterior wall performance.

The educational portion of commissioning has many dimensions. At the basic level, the design team and building operators should be in communication early on regarding program goals and design vision. Operations and maintenance staff, for example, should participate in design meetings.

Maintenance and operation manuals should be provided to clients at project completion to serve as permanent records of the needs of various systems. Komorowski and other facility managers have come to expect a maintenance manual for the mechanical and electrical systems, but they would like to see a similar manual for the architectural finishes. “How do you clean them?” he asks. This is especially critical for the more innovative materials that are often specified by environmentally conscious architects.

The education and training process can take other forms as well. For the Philip Merrill Environmental Center, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s headquarters in Bay Ridge, Md., the SmithGroup of Washington, D.C., specified a modified exit sign, with the words open windows in red lettering against a white background, to be mounted on the wall eight feet above the floor in each of four open-office areas. When the HVAC system turns off, the words light up and the occupants, a proactive bunch working in an organization dedicated to environmental education, stop work and crank open the windows by hand to let in fresh air.

 

Surface texture of the Nature's Conservancy's walkways is rough enough to scrape mud off shoes in areas subject to frequent rain and snow.

Making the transition

Ideally, a commissioning agent should be involved throughout the design process and should continue on for a year after the building is opened so that all systems can be tested and the operations and maintenance staff trained for all seasons. Unfortunately, few clients are yet willing to invest in this entire process, let alone in recommissioning five or ten years down the road to see if the systems are still running optimally and if the building remains healthy. Instead, Croxton often relies, at least in part, on a powerful building management system (BMS) that can process information from a large number of sensors scattered throughout the building. In essence, such a system performs its own ongoing recommissioning or reassessment: A BMS will alert the building operator to various anomalies, such as higher than expected VOC or carbon dioxide readings.

According to Croxton, the architecture profession has become accustomed to thinking in terms of handing over a piece of hardware to the client, but not the software that anticipates how the materials are going to be used, cleaned, and maintained, nor how the building will evolve over time. Continues Croxton, “Architects need to look at the life of the building, because we are creating a physical translation of a dynamic process. Most architects feel that they finish the work when they hand over the building. But for the client, it is just the beginning.”

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